Customers of the city's strip clubs would pay for analyzing the mountain of rape evidence that sits untested in the Houston Police Department's property room under a plan on City Council's Wednesday agenda.

Collecting a $5-per-customer fee would raise an estimated $3 million a year earmarked for reducing a backlog of untested rape kits that at last count exceeded 6,600.

First-term Councilwoman Ellen Cohen, former CEO of an organization that runs a women's shelter, modeled the proposed ordinance on the Sexually Oriented Business Fee Act she authored as a state representative, which imposes a $5-per-customer fee statewide to fund organizations that serve victims of sexual assault. It was adopted by the Legislature in 2007 and validated by the Texas Supreme Court last year after a legal challenge by the adult entertainment industry.

"I imagine the patience it takes for sexual assault survivors that have waited in some cases since 1988, and their kits are sitting on a shelf somewhere," Cohen said Tuesday. "I can only imagine the horror that people have in terms of knowing that their kits have never been processed, that they're afraid to go out, that they're afraid to have relationships."

HPD officials have said they do not have the manpower or money to keep pace with the volume of rape kits, which contain swabs, combs, envelopes for blood and other items through which DNA evidence is collected.

Support for passage

Cohen submitted the proposal last week as an amendment to the $1.9 billion general fund budget council is scheduled to consider Wednesday. Mayor Annise Parker separated it from the other 104 amendments and moved it onto the agenda for consideration before the spending plan. That indicates the mayor's support for the fee and that Cohen has demonstrated she has the support of enough colleagues to pass it, said Janice Evans, the mayor's spokeswoman.

Al Van Huff, lawyer for several Houston-area strip clubs, said the city can expect a court fight.

"It sounds great if you're a politician," Van Huff said. "The reality of the situation is, it's going to be expensive for the city to attempt to impose such a tax on these businesses."

Enforcing a city ordinance also could be complicated. Cohen estimated that about 30 clubs would be affected. Van Huff said fewer than a handful of clubs fit the city's definition of a sexually oriented business, while an additional 50 clubs' entertainers wear just enough clothing to skirt the classification.

Unfair targeting?

The fee unfairly targets clubs with the intent of making them unprofitable and forcing their closure, Van Huff said. The clubs already are responsible for taxes as well as the state fee, he said.

Sonia Corrales, chief program officer of the Houston Area Women's Center, said she does not know of any similar local ordinance in the state.

"Houston has an opportunity to serve as a national model," she told council.

The proposal is a logical pairing of a problem with its solution, Cohen said, because there is a connection between the clubs and sexual assault. Van Huff denies that connection.

A University of Texas study Cohen relies upon to make the link states: "Are sexually-oriented-businesses, alcohol, and the victimization and perpetration of sexual violence against women connected? An exhaustive review of the literature says yes." Yet, several paragraphs later, the study states: "However, no study has authoritatively linked alcohol, sexually-oriented-businesses, and the perpetration of sexual violence."